Samurai Pizza Cats
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Our Review
What if the ninja turtles were a pizza delivery crew, the theme song was about pepperoni, and the villain was a rat named Big Cheese? Samurai Pizza Cats is exactly that question, asked at full volume. Tatsunoko made it in Japan in 1990 as a sensible tokusatsu parody; Saban picked it up, recut it, and wrote a dub so loose and joke-soaked that the 1996 US run became its own thing entirely. Fifty-four episodes of cyborg cats Speedy, Polly and Guido blasting out of a pizza cannon to defend Little Tokyo.
The dub is the whole reason people still talk about it. It drops the heroic register completely: the cats bicker, break the fourth wall, and treat mortal peril like a bad shift at the restaurant. Big Cheese and his ninja crows are a joke machine of their own, and the theme song tells you everything: they’re stronger than dirt, tougher than nails, and they fight crime over 3, 2, 1.
Critics at the time had no category for a show that clearly did not take its own existence seriously, so the ratings look modest while the cult did the opposite. A 2025 action RPG, Blast from the Past!, arrived decades later because the fanbase never left. Home video from Discotek keeps it in print, and the streaming homes rotate.
Worth watching? If your list of 90s nostalgia starts with the shows nobody else remembers, this is the bottom of the barrel in the best way. Put it on while you cook, laugh at the puns you can feel coming a mile away. Our score: 7/10.
